Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corp. (HK Motors) plans to begin producing light-duty natural gas/hybrid-electric passenger vehicles in Alabama in 2013, and it will have the support of the American Public Gas Association (APGA) and NGVAmerica in promoting them, the company and trade associations said last Wednesday.

“The American public is becoming very familiar with hybrid technology, and this is the next evolution,” said NGVAmerica President Richard Kolodziej.

Kolodziej will be a presenter on the topic of NGVs at GasMart 2010, the annual forum and network center for the natural gas industry and its customers, coming up May 10-12 in Chicago. For more information on the program visit the GasMart 2010 website.

“This new collaboration intends to break through the ‘chicken or egg’ barriers that have limited natural gas from being recognized by the public for what it is: the most abundant, efficient, environmentally friendly and affordable domestic fuel for consumer vehicles,” said Bert Kalisch, president of APGA.

Compared to gasoline-fueled vehicles, natural gas vehicles (NGV) produce 29% less greenhouse gases (GHG). When vehicle powertrains are designed specifically to use natural gas and combined with hybrid technologies, GHG levels can be reduced by half while providing fuel efficiency to meet or exceed the new federal standards, according to the associations.

The collaboration will:

“Natural gas provides an immediate, responsible step toward real energy independence for the American driving public. It is geographically abundant and clean. We will work together to ensure it is in convenient supply when HK Motors vehicles arrive in the market,” said HK Motors CEO CT Wang.

HK Motors said its first generation of natural gas-fueled/hybrid-electric vehicles will include a small gasoline supply for emergency use because retail CNG infrastructure for the public car buyer is not currently a clear priority. “HK Motors believes that the bottlenecks limiting the strategic importance of this important alternative fuel can only be broken if both natural gas suppliers and vehicle manufacturers work together to come into the market simultaneously with both supply and customers in a profitable way,” the company said.

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